First, we need to chat just a bit on why it's important that you're popular on Facebook. Because I know that many of us, particularly those of us who maybe weren't ever so popular in high school, have learned to not give a flying Frito about who likes us and who doesn't like us. Or we've learned to pretend anyway.
But here's the thing: Eventually we're going to have a book. We are. I know it. And when we do, we are going to have to work to sell our books so that we can have the fortunate experience of getting paid to write another. Whether we like it or not, that means we have to sell a little bit. Selling doesn't have to be painful. And it doesn't have to be pushy car salesman like either. The easiest sell is to people who already know and like you. So the more friends you have before you sell your book, the better. Hence, popularity is your friend.
And Facebook is where our focus of popularity is in this series of posts.
Now, back to last week's post:
The first way in which I likened Facebook to high school was that, just like in HS, FB doesn't like the newbie. Even if you manage to make a ton of friends overnight, FB won't put your posts in very many news streams until you have been around awhile. (Remember, you need to be in people's news streams to be popular).
How do you counteract this?
Simple. Don't be new.
Of course you have to be new when you are new to FB, but don't be new when it counts. Establish an FB account, make friends, interact, LONG before your book gets published so that when it is published, you don't have to start then.
I have to give my usual disclaimer that you don't have to use FB to market your book and I won't judge you (too much) if you don't choose to participate. But it's free. And it's easy. And a lot of agent's expect it. So just think about it.
I've heard from a lot of you that you don't like Facebook. Are you using it anyway? What do you dislike the most? I love hearing the whys from you.
